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We just got 3 C31's and and HR34 installed Saturday-- for $538 I might add- and since I've called DirecTV once per day over an issue and had to do 1-2 resets of the HR34 every day. Our screen goes black (not gray) from a C31. If you press guide- you can see white text on a black background- but no picture or sound. Red button reset on the C31 doesn't fix it- and I've replaced all cables in the path and bypassed the receiver going straight from C31 to our Sharp 70" LCD (732U series). We're on a 1 year old (new) SWIM16 switch in a new house with 4 year old RG6.

When our great room C31 exhibited this behavior this morning- I took a WORKING 31 from another room to the same physical place and swapped the two. The problem then showed up on the 2nd C31- which makes it seem like it's related to the cable there. Called Direct- a RBR on the HR34 fixed it- for now.

I'm now regretting this change- and see posts about this going back to early November... hmmm....

When our great room C31 exhibited this behavior this morning- I took a WORKING 31 from another room to the same physical place and swapped the two. The problem then showed up on the 2nd C31- which makes it seem like it's related to the cable there. Called Direct- a RBR on the HR34 fixed it- for now.

I initially tried swapping out my clients way back when with another that was in a room that wasn't used very often, but both clients will eventually exhibit the problem regardless of the location in the house.

I suppose a better cabling test for me would be swapping the HR34 with a C31 as the HR34 never seems to be stuck when the C31 units are?

I wouldn't doubt that non pristine cabling could be a factor. My cables are 30 years old. But, my C31 works perfectly fine, as long as I don't turn it off. So it could be related with the on/off cycle and cabling.

I wouldn't doubt that non pristine cabling could be a factor. My cables are 30 years old. But, my C31 works perfectly fine, as long as I don't turn it off. So it could be related with the on/off cycle and cabling.

I'd be somewhat skeptical that the cabling is the cause in my case. I had my house rewired in a home run configuration with all new RG6 (and Cat5e) around two years ago or so.

But like you said, my C31 works fine when it works. I left it on for several days straight once and it never had the grey/black screen issue that was described above. But leaving all the C31s on uses up an available tuner for each C31 on the HR34? So that isn't an ideal solution...

I've gone 24 hours without a RBR on the HR34- and all I've done is disconnected the DECA BB adapter from our wired ethernet. I'll keep watching this.

Also this is the 2nd time I've heard someone report "disable power saving and don't turn off your C31"... can you expand on that a little please? I haven't tried this because leaving a C31 on all the time takes up one of the HR 34 tuners... but... thank you

I've gone 24 hours without a RBR on the HR34- and all I've done is disconnected the DECA BB adapter from our wired ethernet. I'll keep watching this.

I completely disconnected mine from the Internet as well, but it didn't resolve the issue.

Also this is the 2nd time I've heard someone report "disable power saving and don't turn off your C31"... can you expand on that a little please? I haven't tried this because leaving a C31 on all the time takes up one of the HR 34 tuners... but... thank you

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Just disable the power saving option on the C31 to prevent it from sleeping and just turn off the TV when you're not using that device. The C31 stays on and continues using up a tuner, but at least you don't have to worry about it not coming back on when you want to use that TV later.

My house just had all new wiring installed after some renovation.
I have to reset the genie almost every other day when the mini clients have black screens.
I have reported this to Directv's technical and have sent reports to them via the genie. They are aware of it and ones informed that a fix is being worked on. The rep I spoke to was well aware of the problems many of us are having and seemed as frustrated as I was.
So. We wait.

My house just had all new wiring installed after some renovation. I have to reset the genie almost every other day when the mini clients have black screens.I have reported this to Directv's technical and have sent reports to them via the genie. They are aware of it and ones informed that a fix is being worked on. The rep I spoke to was well aware of the problems many of us are having and seemed as frustrated as I was. So. We wait.

Yes we do. I killed off the power saving on my C31, and just leave it on all the time. The fix until a real fix comes out. Hopefully it burns up and they can replace it, which they will do repeatedly at their cost until it is fixed, because I am sure as hell not paying for it. No shipping costs, no replacement costs, this is their problem. Better testing in house would have found this issue.

Yes we do. I killed off the power saving on my C31, and just leave it on all the time. The fix until a real fix comes out. Hopefully it burns up and they can replace it, which they will do repeatedly at their cost until it is fixed, because I am sure as hell not paying for it. No shipping costs, no replacement costs, this is their problem. Better testing in house would have found this issue.

They stay surprisingly warm when they're off, too. I know they're not really "off" when they're off, but still.

Yes we do. I killed off the power saving on my C31, and just leave it on all the time. The fix until a real fix comes out. Hopefully it burns up and they can replace it, which they will do repeatedly at their cost until it is fixed, because I am sure as hell not paying for it. No shipping costs, no replacement costs, this is their problem. Better testing in house would have found this issue.

Hit the red button to reset the receiver. When the "starting up" screen first appears hit 02468 on the remote. After the "almost there" screen goes away it should enter into a forced software update mode. At that point it should find it again and download it. I had to do this cycle on my H20 four times to get it to find the new software so you may have to attempt it a few times.

So far so good with the update. I think folks are waiting to see if issues arise as with ours it would happen every 3-4 days although sometimes a couple of times a day.
The latest software earlier in the week is vastly improved. Quicker response times going though the menu and guide. The c-31s also turn on quicker and overall a pleasing experience.
If I get the black or grey screen ill update. Knock on wood.

This thread kind of just died. I'm running the latest software on a pair of C31's and an HR34. I've had it for 10 days and I've had to reboot the HR34 5 times due to the gray screen problem on 2 different C31's connected to 2 different TV's (I also have a video freezing problem simultaneously on the HR34). RBR fixes it for a while. It's gone as long as 3 days without the issue and as short as 12 hours.

Just wondering if software updates fixed everyone's issues on this thread?